Oh, the irony

This year's halloween get-ups. Both are repeat costumes. Blanket wore the tiger costume I got for Tiger when he was a baby, and Tiger is Charlie Brown for the second year in a row.

I'm not a big halloween fan, but I do enjoy dressing up my children in cute costumes while they are too young to protest. Tiger likes candy, and was all about the trick or treat thing for the candy. We share it : Tiger gets one, Mom gets one, Dad gets one.

I liked the weather this year. It was about 60 degrees and light at 6 pm when we went out. The other two years we were here it was 25 degrees and 35 degrees at trick or treat time.

The Contest.

So Jenny ran away with my last contest.  Congratulations.  What kind of bread do you want me to bake you?

I have a new contest.  This one is a lot more open ended.  Lots of participation in this one too.  Please request a prize.

Homemade bread

The stitches from my finger

Sewing lessons

Fabric from my stash

A mini quilt

A Christmas stocking

A recipe

Or something else of your own choosing (be creative, but realistic)

The rules: name my potential next child.  No, I am not pregnant.  The name must be classic, uncommon, use a traditional spelling, and be a character in a comic strip or cartoon (preferably the former).  The rules for uncommon are: it should be likely that they will not go to elementary school with someone named that, and probably not high school too.  If  you know only one or two people with that name its probably good.  If you don't know anyone with that name, even better.  Please do not use characters from either Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes for obvious reasons.

I'd like someone else to win this contest so enter often.

Imperfect children.

In case you think my children are perfect, I have proof they are not angels all of the time.  I do, however, have great friends.  Jenny was so good, she even thought to get video of Blanket screaming.  It's just not something that I think to save for posterity.

Check out Blanket's fit over here.  Notice he still doesn't crawl.

Fun with Stitches. Not Fun with Stitches.

The title is a play on my codename, and its new (enhanced) meaning. :?

First, the not fun part.  I didn't get my stitches out today.  They said it was too moist.  I have to wait until Friday or Saturday for it to be dry enough to make decisions about.  They thought about putting SteriStrips on it before opting not to remove the stitches. I may get some SteriStrips on Saturday anyway after stitch removal because of how deep it is.  I just hope I don't need surgery or to be restitched or something crazy like that.

Now, for the fun part.  I have a trivia question I want answered.  I don't know what the prize is going to be yet, but I want lots of participation.  Maybe you can request the prize you want too win in your answer.

As most of you know, I named my children classic, uncommon names.  What 5 movies feature the uncommon name of one of my children?  Please write movies only please (and not the names of the characters) in the comments. 

If nobody can come up with them in the next couple of days I will post a hint.

Nancy Drew strikes again

I must have turned into Nancy Drew, because I have solved two mysteries involving the same toy in the last 6 months.  

Grandma gave Tiger the Edward train from Thomas and Friends for his birthday.  Edward and his tender accidentally got thrown away more than once, but they always got plucked from the trash.  In April or May Nancy took on the Case of the Missing Coal.  Edward's tender was missing its coal.  Gone.  Nancy looked for it from time to time, and then one day she moved the trash can.  The coal dropped to the floor.  After some glue to repair a crack and to prevent further accidents, Nancy considered this case: closed. 

About a month later Nancy was put on The Case of Blue Tender.  Blue Tender went missing. After her previous success, Nancy looked in odd places for Blue Tender.  She even looked in the trash can.  Nancy spent 20 minutes or so a day for more than a week working on the case.  Eventually she concluded that Blue Tender must have been thrown away.  There was no finding it.  Nancy and her husband, Mr. Hardy, would ask, "Where's Blue Tender?" but Tiger didn't know.  Tiger started asking us and we would respond in kind.  Nancy was off this case.  

Last night Nancy opened a new case:  The Case of the Missing Photo Album. Mr. Hardy needed some information that was in it.  Nancy looked in all the usual places.  Books tend to wander under our couches, so that seemed like a good searching spot.  Though she did not find the album there (it was in the toy box) she did find Blue Tender under the couch. 

Wow. One good search of the house solved two cases.  Nancy is getting really good at solving cases.  Maybe she should take up cold cases for other people while luck is still on her side.

The Garbage Disposal--Thank You Emily

B.A.R. informed me today that the garbage disposal has a hole rusted in it, and leaks occasionally.   Then he asked if I remembered what we learned last time our garbage disposal broke (when we lived in MI).  I remember what I learned.  I learned that my friends really care about me.

The garbage disposal broke (got broken) one night while we were doing a plumbing inspection of sorts.  I went out the next day and bought replacement.  Around lunchtime I was half done installing it when Emily called.  She invited me over to spend my afternoon making cookies with her and her girls.  I politely declined because I wanted to install this disposer and avoid thinking about something.  Emily demanded (this is not her nature) that I put down the project and come over.   I know why she did it, and I never got to thank her for it.  I really needed that, and I really appreciated it then.  And I am very sorry that I never said so.

A request for family members (and friends of my Tiger and Blanket)

Tiger and Blanket have lots of cousins and friends.  Tiger only knows 3 or 4 of his cousins' faces.  I would really appriciate if you could email me (see the link on the left) pictures of your kids (preferably only one child in each photo).  I want Tiger to learn what his cousins look like even though he doesn't see them all the time.    If you are our friends, and would like to participate with pictures of your own kids please do!

Catching up with the goings on.

Blanket is almost 11 months old and can do lots of new things.  He says "Mama, " "Dada," "uh-oh," (this one is very popular)  "do[g],"  "ba[ll],"  and will even say "all done," but you have to really be listening to hear that.  

He is thinking about learning to crawl. He does a great job pivoting on his belly if you put him on his tummy.  From his back he reaches with his hand and then creeps using his head and shoulder.  From a sitting position he will move 8 or 10 inches by pushing his hands against the floor and dragging his bum.  All his crawling effort comes from the waist up, but he is getting the idea that he should involve his feet.  Maybe by Christmas he will be mobile enough to change rooms. 

Tiger is starting to make up words to his favorite songs.  "The train on the bus goes chugga chugga all through the track." and "The key on the bus goes snap snap snap all around the town."  I really wondered about the last one because he had this pinching motion to go with it.  It took me half a day to figure out that he was talking about my VW key that operates like a switchblade.

I am really tired of these &@^$$ stitches.  It is hard to type, they are starting to annoy, the area needs a really good cleaning, and I am not in nearly as much pain as I was.  I want to be able to hold a book again.  I want to not have to wrap my finger in a bandaid twice a day, and to be able to  wash my hair without help.

Tonight is the ward trunk or treat party.  I have the boys' costumes ready.  Tiger is going as Charlie Brown (his costume last year) and Blanket is wearing the Tiger costume we got for Tiger when he was a baby.  Does anyone remember what time it is at?  I missed church last week due to my finger

Adding insult to injury

So my finger is still the thing running my life right now. I seem to squash, slam, and otherwise inadvertently injure it repeatedly every single day. Even the shelf at the grocery store sent a major shock right through the injured part of my finger yesterday.

This morning I had a scheduled appointment for having some moles removed. It was early enough that B.A.R. stayed home with the kids. The Dr. appointment took longer than anticipated and I was in a hurry to get home so that he could leave for work. In my haste to return, I was speeding. I was going a little faster than I normally do and got nailed in a speed trap. It is the first time I have not been able to get out of a ticket in my life. I was strangely calm about the whole thing. I am just mad that after I got injured Saturday and this morning I had to get ticketed too. I feel piled on.

Oh, and B.A.R. won't be back until Thursday night.

Blame it on the hair.

Warning: if talk of blood makes you light-headed GO BACK NOW!!!

All you with strong stomachs: Welcome.

I did something today I haven't done in 15 years.  Well, 14 years and 11 months.  The last time it happened I had really long hair.  In fact, I only know 3 people who read this blog who knew me way back then.  I am convinced that the strain put on my head by my long locks must have contributed to my accident then and now.  But I digress.

Today I got 5 stitches in my left index finger for the second time in my life.  I would have had more, but they don't stitch fingernails. And, yes, typing this is harder, and more painful, than it used to be.  And, no, I have never had stitches anywhere else that I got due to an accident.  The best part is: it could have been a lot worse.  

I had just put Blanket down for a nap and I had gone to the basement to quilt.  Well, to cut fabric so that I could quilt.  Tiger was down in the basement shoeless.  B.A.R.  was assembling his stuff so that he could go to the gun range with his friend, G.T.D. (who was expected imminently).  I was cutting with my razor-sharp rotary cutter.  I had probably been cutting for 5 minutes or so when I somehow managed to run the cutter up onto the ruler and tried to take off  the right third of the tip of my left index finger.  I knew it was bad before I even put the cutter down. (No blood on the fabric, etc.)

I bolted for the stairs and Tiger followed.  I had my finger in my mouth so that I didn't bleed all over the floor and tried to explain to B.A.R. that a trip to urgent care was in order.  After 2 minutes and the use of the word, "stitches," he grabbed the baby from his nap and put both boys in the car as-is.  I managed to get a paper towel for my finger and open my own car door.  

We assumed the hurried pace we always take to the urgent care.  When we got there B.A.R. operated my door for me before the car was even off.  I somehow managed to PULL open the door to the clinic with my elbow.  At least there was no waiting for me.  Nope, he took my name and took me to an exam room.   Then he gave me a basin of water to soak? my finger in.  I dropped 4 huge drops of blood on my pants in the 1.25 seconds between pulling off the "bandage" and dropping my hand in the basin.  The finger actually bled that bad for the next hour until they got me all stitched up.

I will save you the particulars of our 75 minute visit to the urgent care.  I will say B.A.R. died a slow death while waiting for me.  He had NO CLUE what was going on, why it was taking so long, whether I still had a finger, or whether a trip to the E.R. was coming up.   When I walked out he still had to ask how the finger was cut, etc.  He really had no idea.  He did keep the boys happy in a waiting room with a fair number of toys.  He actually thought he was going to have to leave with them and come back for me because I was gone and they were running out of happy. Thankfully, they did fabulous.  

I am not supposed to be doing much of anything today.  Good thing I just got a bunch of old movies and quilting movies from the library that I was wondering when I was going to watch.  B.A.R. did go out on his shooting trip after we got back.  I am glad he was home when the accident happened.  His trips are usually 4 hours (1 hour each way and 2 hours at the range).  He is out of cell range most of that time.  I really don't know what I would have done in that case.  I probably would have called 911, because I couldn't drive, and I was bleeding like mad.

25 sq ft to quilt, sew, craft and create.

I have had a request for pictures of my sewing table.
You know, that one I got for free a couple of months back. The one that I cleaned and cleaned the basement to make room for. It is really just 2 steel cubicle desks pushed back to back. It is far from perfect, but I don't live in a perfect world. It is however, much better than working at the kitchen table. It does have lots and lots of storage the 10 large drawers on the sides are each 2.5 feet deep. Any questions?

The rest of the clothes

So here are my other 3 triumphs of fabric. If I was smart I would have chosen fabrics that hide mistakes and flaws. I however, love plaid, and those can show your mistakes if you don't take great care to match lines and such.
This second one was even harder. Not only is it argyle, it is corduroy too. It means you have to pay super close attention to the pattern, and the direction of the fabric.
This last one is a wrap skirt, and the only one not to feature either black or green. It is plaid though, and I found some nice ribbon to accent the top.
If any of you, besides Jenny, were paying any attention; I wore the top one on Sunday. Thanks for noticing Jenny.

Sidney, Nebraska.

One might wonder what there is to do in Sidney, Nebraska. Well, there is a rare experience, that's what. You are looking at photos of the Union Pacific Challenger locomotive. Currently, the largest operating steam locomotive. (No Big Boys are track-ready at this time.) For those of you who care it is a 4-6-6-4 configuration that has been converted to run on oil (no longer on coal). It was a bit dirty, and was stopping in Sidney for a grease-up before finishing its journey back to Cheyenne. It is housed in Cheyenne but was out for some special tour.

It was unseasonably cold, so we left Blanket in the car. After about 20 minutes of being alone he started to object, but it was so cold and windy I didn't dare take him too far from the car. We figured we might not get this chance again before the kids get a lot bigger, so we went. It was 2.5 hours or so to get there. Then I was asking directions to the train station and the girl at the gas station pulled out the phone book (all 30 pages of it) to look at the map. She was having trouble with the directions, but I looked at the map and figured it out.
After watching the train finish maintainence on-the-go we went to Cabela's for lunch. This is right next to Cabela's world headquarters. It isn't very big (as far as Cabela's go) but it does have a polar bear, and an elephant on display. It is also the nearest Cabela's until the open the one in Wheat Ridge (if that ever happens). Then we came home and got home about 4:30. Not a bad way to spend the day. Blanket did want to be held a bunch after we got back, but he had spent the entire day in the stroller or in his car seat. If that were me, I'd want to be held too.

More Definitions from the Dictionary

Here is the next installment of The Sunday Funnies Dictionary.

Mitigate:  To change the baby's diaper.  Usually after the baby has pooped.  E.G.: we are at a nice resturaunt with our friends and Blanket smells bad.  I say, "I need to go mitigate," and grab the baby and diaper bag.

The fan in our bedroom has 3 speeds:  Token, On, and Turbo.  I hate having the fan on when I go to sleep, and B.A.R. needs it 8 months of the year.  He wants Turbo, I want off.  I usually settle for Token (my token of compromise).  B.A.R. says that it isn't really on until On, and that Turbo is the only thing that really moves a lot of air.  That may be, but any amount of air movement is too much for me.

The other blog

I haven't posted for a while because I have one thought that I need to post about before the others can come out.  And while I am opinionated and don't really care what other people think about what I think, I didn't want to give people reasons to offend themselves here at this blog.  I have created another, separate blog, as an outlet for my opinions.  

You can still blurk or read and review here without fear of running into my opinions on politics, economy and other divisive issues.  If you want to step into that minefield follow me over here.  I will also place a link in The Checklist so you can go over there whenever you want.  

I do not promise that I will post over there often, but I do promise that I post opinions over there and not here in my Family Friendly blog.  

And for those of you who didn't figure it out, there aren't any pictures in the prom post.  NONE!!

Prom Pictures

See, Landee, I am going to do that great post you suggested about Prom photos.  So here are all my great prom photos:

Yep. That's all of them.  Look closely, you may even see that I half didn't care about going to prom.  I didn't have a boyfriend.  I didn't know any boys interested enough in going to the dance to even consider taking me.  Most of my friends weren't going. I didn't want to have to buy or make a dress (see my earlier post about me and finding dress clothes that I like).  I didn't have money for a new dress even if I made it.   I didn't have some anti-prom party like some of my friends did.  By the time my Senior Dinner Dance (our senior prom) I really had no desire to engage in all that headache for one night that didn't even promise to be really fun.  

In fact,  the only thing that I ever did for prom was get my friend a date.  She had never been asked to any school dances up to this point and this was going to be her last chance.  I knew she really wanted to go and liked this guy who liked me (that too, was not reciprocal) .  They were both seniors and I was a sophomore (and barely 16).   I convinced this guy to take my friend (and even helped him devise a way to ask her)  before he could even dream of asking me.  He didn't have a car or even a driver's license, so I had to find somebody else for them to go with.  At least when I asked this other guy to double with them,  I didn't have to find him a date!  

They all had a good time, and her parents and I explained ourselves (they were in on the secret) after the event was over.  

Watching the numbers change.

The numbers on the clock that is.  My night didn't  go so well.  I almost blogged about it earlier, but I was much more asleep than I am now.  Let's start with yesterday afternoon.  

1:00:  Both boys went down for naps

2:15:   Blanket woke up.  He was awake and crabby because he didn't sleep long enough

4:30:  I woke Tiger up so that he would actually go to bed before we did. 

6:30:  I put Blanket to bed because he was so crazy tired.

7:15:   I put Tiger to bed concerned that he would not go to sleep, but hoping that he would.

7:45:  Tiger got up and watched the football game with us.

8:15: Tiger threw a fit about not getting to continue watching this locomotive website we found.  He went off to bed.

8:45: Tiger got back up and watched more football.

9:25: The game ended and Tiger was put to bed and locked in his room.

10:30: I checked on both boys, and they were sleeping. I went to bed.

12:30: I got up to use the bathroom and went right back to bed.

1ish: Tiger crawls in bed with us noiselessly (I was too asleep to object) and falls asleep in my arms.  More like ON my arms.  I woke up to reposition them and crawl away from him 3 or four times before

4:44:  Blanket wakes up shrieking.   No amount of comforting or clean diaper changed his desire for a bottle.   I gave him his bottle and went back toward my bedroom.  I contemplated my options:

A: Crawl back in my Tempurpedic with my husband and Tiger.

B: Put Tiger back in his own bed before retaking my own.

C: Get into Tiger's  bed and try to sleep. or 

D: None of the above.

I seriously considered C before choosing A-the path of least resistance.  A couple of minutes later Tiger started moaning. This is normal nighttime noise for him.  I am surprised this is the first time that I heard it considering how long he had been in our bed.  I fulfilled B.  I was hoping that I was going back to sleep when I learned my morning would be filled with D.

5:15: Blanket finishes his bottle, and is sure that he is ready to be awake.  He wanted to play, really.  I brought him downstairs and poked around on the computer for a few minutes.

5:30:  I put in a Harry Potter movie so that I can remain half awake while Blanket plays on the couch.  I watched for a few minutes.  I closed my eyes and listened for a few more.

6:47: Blanket declares his need to go back to bed.  Smiling, I went and put him back into his own bed.  I sought my own bed and sleep rapidly thereafter.

7:35: (15 minutes after B.A.R. wanted to be awoken)  He rolls over and asks me what all happened last night.  At least I had found some sleep.

7:45:   I went to check on Blanket and found him happily awake in his bed.  Knowing he wouldn't want to be left alone I put him in the bathroom because B.A.R. was still taking a shower and went back to bed.  I knew Tiger would be getting up soon, and I wanted anymore sleep I could get.

7:50:  Tiger came in and crawled on the bed.  We asked him why he got in our bed in the middle of the night.  "Were you cold?" "No." "Were you scared?" "Yes."  Mystery solved.  Now if I could just solve the mystery of sleeping while I clean my house, run my errands and make my phone calls I could have a very productive day.

The Land of Not

Tiger knows so much, in fact, he is mastering opposites and other negatives.  If you ask him, "What color is your shirt?"  you may get a response of, "It's red."  More often we are getting the response of, "It's not blue."  

Other typical conversations with Tiger:

"What kind of truck is that?"

"It's not a Ford truck."

"Is it a Dodge truck?"

"It's not a Dodge truck."

"What kind of truck is that?"

"It's a fake (Toyota) truck!"

"Is Baby Blanket small?"

"He is not big."

"Is he big?"

"He is not big. He is small."

"What kind of underwear do you have today?"

"It's not Thomas underwear."

"What kind is it?"

"It's Mater underwear."

I feel like I am living in the land of Not.  Every conversation is as much about what something isn't as much as it is about what something is.  I hope this is only a phase, and that it doesn't last very long.  I don't think I could handle NOT conversations forever.

In other Tiger notes, he finally got a "Tiger special light" for his room.  It's one of those nightlights that costs like 3 cents a year to operate.  He is truly afraid of the dark, and that is the best way to handle it.  Mind you, we kept him in an artificially dark room for his whole life so that he would sleep later, and go to bed earlier in the summer.  The nightlight doesn't really undo all my window covering work, and it makes him feel more secure.